Today was the last baseball game of our trip. We’ve had kind of a bummer experience watching the Nationals play so far. They lost to the Dodgers on Saturday, the day we arrived. Then on Sunday, while we were exploring the American space program at Kennedy Space Center, the Nats were in Ft. Lauderdale losing egregiously to the Orioles 11-3. (Alas, yes, it was 11-3, not 8-2 as I reported on Sunday.) Then yesterday they lost rather decisively to the NY Mets, 7-3.
So it was with a bit of trepidation that we drove across the Florida peninsula today to Lakeland to watch the Nationals take on the Detroit Tigers–a formidable team, the American League champions of 2006–in the Tigers’ spring training camp in Lakeland.
The Tigers have had their camp in Lakeland for something like 72 years or so, since the 1930s. The stadium in which they play, Joker Marchant Stadium, was built in 1965. This is a spring training camp with a history. I don’t know whether I expected something old and run-down, but Joker Marchant Stadium (named for a parks and recreation director of the city of Lakeland) was a real treat.
The drive into Lakeland off Interstate 4 takes you along Lakeland Hills Boulevard through a suburban residental neighborhood. There’s a Honda dealership adjacent to Tigertown, the Tigers’ spring training camp. The sign depicted above greets you at the entrance.
The stadium complex is my idealized image of a Florida spring training facility. There are palm trees everywhere you look, and the architecture is that peach-colored Florida mission style.
The atmosphere is a combination of midwestern-polite and southern-cordial. There are Tiger fans everywhere you turn, but unlike the fans of Philadelphia or New York, these fans wear their pride with quiet dignity, not with braying bravado. Marchant Stadium is designed for baseball fans who want to have fun.
One of the most remarkable features of this park is the left-field berm. We strolled out there during batting practice. Because of the wind and the strength of some of the Nats’ batters, a number of batting-practice home runs came out to the berm. There was a mad scramble for each ball hit out there, and just about everybody except us had baseball gloves on. I understand from the Tigers’ website that “seats” in the berm section cost $7.00 each. This is one of the great bargains in baseball.
Barbara and I had never seen the Nationals during batting practice. At home games at RFK stadium, the stadium gates opened too late for most people to see any of the home team’s batting practice session. Today, of course, the Nats were the visitors, and I think Marchant Stadium’s doors were opened early anyway. We got a rare close-up look at our guys in action. This somewhat made up for our missing the morning workout yesterday at Space Coast Stadium.
The game today was apparently a sellout. The announced crowd was something like 7,900 or so. We did not see any sections with empty seats.
Ah yes. The game. Well, it was televised nationally on ESPN, and we Nats fans are so glad of this. The A-team was playing today: Nick Johnson was on 1st base, Lastings Milledge was in center field, young prospect Justin Maxwell was in left, Cristian Guzman was at short, Dmitri Young (who was dropped ignominiously by the Tigers two years ago because of his questionable behavior at the time) was the designated hitter.
In short, the Nats smashed the Tigers. Going into the ninth inning, it was 9-0 Nats. Our closing pitcher, Jesus Colome, gave up a meaningless two-out home run to Marcus Thames of the Tigers, but that was just a way for the Tigers to retain a bit of dignity.
And the Tigers had their A-team on the field today, too. Curtis Granderson, Ivan Rodriguez, Edgar Renteria, Jeremy Bonderman pitching. The Nats had their way with these guys. Nationals starting pitcher Tim Redding (pitching with the flu) held the Tigers scoreless through five innings, and relievers Joel Hanrahan and Ray King held them through the 8th. The Nats’ bats were hot today. Lastings Milledge did what we wanted to see when he hit a mighty homer. Justin Maxwell had a massive three-run shot himself, and Ronnie Belliard knocked in two runs with a tape-measure shot to the berm. Dmitri Young had an RBI single, as did Nick Johnson The sixth inning looked like batting practice for the Nationals.
I’m not really a baseball photographer, so this shot of Guzman swinging is pure luck on my part. I don’t think this at-bat was meaningful in any way; Guzman scored one run in the game, had one hit, and did not knock in any runs. But the Nats as a team were whacking the ball all over the field, drumming Tigers’ reliever Tim Byrdak in the sixth inning by scoring seven runs.
And the beauty part is that the national broadcast on ESPN showed the whole country the Nats as we hope they will play this season.
We left the stadium proud of our boys, and sad to be leaving spring training for 2008.
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